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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25015849">Jellicle Stories For 2019 Cats</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GorillaMoon/pseuds/StatisticalCats'>StatisticalCats (GorillaMoon)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cats (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, M/M, Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:20:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,164</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25015849</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GorillaMoon/pseuds/StatisticalCats</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection for Cats 2019 fics, rated T and under. Characters and ships will vary, tags will be added as time goes on.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Demeter/Munkustrap (Cats), Jennyanydots/Munkustrap (Cats), Mr. Mistoffelees/Munkustrap/Victoria (Cats), Munkustrap/Skimbleshanks (Cats), Rum Tum Tugger/Jennyanydots (Cats)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. (Tuggerdots)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A note for how Mates work in my 2019 universe. Jellicles commonly have multiple Mates. And those Mates will have other Mates and so on. A Mate with a capital M is an official partner.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jennyanydots knew a lot of things. She knew the most comfortable areas in her house to take a nap. She knew she had more success baking than any of her humans did. She knew how to patch up wounds quickly, with any supplies available to her. And she knew that in the grand scheme of things, she wasn’t a particularly important Jellicle. </p><p>Sure, she could probably be considered one of Munkustrap’s Mates, and she didn’t doubt their strong relationship. But she still knew that as a Mate, she wasn’t on the same level as Demeter or Skimbleshanks. And, if her intuition was correct (which it almost always was if you asked her), Mistoffelees and that new queen, Victoria, would end up joining the roster at some point.</p><p>She knew her somewhat low status was an inevitability. Her humans were… different from any of the humans the other Jellicles lived with. They tended to be overly reliant on her, and while it was nice to be so appreciated by one’s humans, it meant she wasn’t free to leave her house as often as the other Jellicles were. She could sometimes leave, and would always make sure to attend Jellicle Balls, but too much time away and her humans would panic. It was all a bit of a stressful situation. Jenny had dreams of traveling, taking the world by storm and becoming famous. But she had yet to gain the courage to truly attempt to break free and pursue her dream. Always too scared she’d be leaving her human family in shambles. </p><p><i>’Because they wouldn’t be in shambles if I had been the Jellicle Choice.’</i> she berated herself, as she settled down in front of her fireplace, ready for a nice long nap after this year’s quite <i>eventful</i> Ball. </p><p>It really had been a bit of a coward’s way out, competing to be the Jellicle Choice. She wouldn’t have to deal with how her absence would affect her humans that way. But that wasn’t fair of her, she knew that.</p><p>Just as she knew, as she registered with an annoyed ear twist the sound of a cat not-so-quietly entering her house uninvited, just who that cat was without having to even look or smell.</p><p>“Would it actually kill you to ask permission before barging into someone’s house?” she asked with exasperation, as the Rum Tum Tugger jumped down from the window and landed beside her.</p><p>“Don’t know and not interested in finding out. I happen to like being alive.” Tugger smoothly replied, lounging and stretching out as if he hadn’t just invaded her house.</p><p>“Oh, just make yourself at home in <i>my house</i> why don’t you?” Irritation laced her voice as she half-glared at the tom.</p><p>“Don’t mind if I do!” he brightly replied, grinning widely in a way that always made Jenny unsure if he was even aware of how rude or annoying he was being. Most would probably assume he was clueless but she knew him too well to underestimate him. She swore he had some personal vendetta against her, with how often he bothered her.</p><p>She opened her mouth for a snappy comeback but Tugger held up his paws to stop her. “Now wait, wait, before you make any more fuss, just know I come bearing gifts!” Shrugging off his auburn coat, he reached into it’s inside pockets and pulled out…</p><p>“And just <i>where</i> did you get those sausages?” She tried to display only disapproval and annoyance, but couldn’t completely hide her interest in the link of sausages, and Tugger grinned in response.</p><p>“Found them.” he answered with a shrug and Jenny rolled her eyes. </p><p>Tugger separated the link into equal portions (Jenny counted) and held one section out to Jenny. “How about it?” he teased.</p><p>Jenny huffed, in a not quite serious manner, and took the offered food. Her humans would sometimes give her sausages, but never as much as this. She mentally cursed Tugger for succeeding in winning her over. For now, at least.</p><p>They ate their “found” meal with no conversation. The silence was mostly comfortable, at least while there were still plenty of sausages to get through, but there was an unmistakable air of tension that grew around them. And Jenny was steadily getting annoyed at the “off” aura around Tugger. </p><p><i>’Like he has the right to feel bad before I’ve even said anything.’</i> she thought with some disdain.</p><p>But the sausages couldn’t last forever and with the last of the meat eaten, and the two cats cleaning their fur of any remnants, Jenny finally breached the air of tension, for the confrontation that needed to happen. Not just with Tugger, but he had placed himself in the position of unfortunate first target.</p><p>“This doesn’t let you off, you know.” she stated, not bothering to even try to hide the anger in her tone.</p><p>Tugger had seemingly been lost in his own thoughts, but at her words he had the <i>audacity</i> to actually look confused.  </p><p>“Don’t play dumber!” she exclaimed, now loud in voicing her displeasure. “You! <i>All</i> of you! You just left me! I get magic napped by Macavity, and none of you did anything about it? Did you even notice? Did you notice that <i>any</i> of us were gone?!”<br/>
Tugger shrunk back, ears flattened, at her outburst. He looked down, nervously pawing at the floor under Jenny’s glare.</p><p>He seemed hesitant to respond, still not looking at her as he began to speak. “We didn’t know you were gone.” he said quietly, and there was a tone in his voice that implied he thought this was an actual defense and she bristled angrily in response, but he continued before she could. “He… Macavity. When he took you…he must have taken our memories too. Our memories of you. While you were gone… we didn’t… I didn’t remember you. Not until just before you all showed up again…” </p><p>She was left blinking in surprise, taking that information in. Her anger still bubbled inside of her, now stuck with nowhere to go. Well, it could go towards Macavity she supposed, but he wasn’t exactly reachable to release any of it. She guessed it made sense, Macavity <i>was</i> a magic cat, after all. </p><p>She thought of the moments between the end of the Ball, and her return to her house. Munkustrap clinging to Skimbleshanks, a nervous aura an unfamiliar presence around him. He had approached Jenny too, embracing and nuzzling her with guilt and other emotions in his eyes. Well deserved guilt she had thought. But apparently his forgetting her had been magically induced. </p><p>They had parted, and Jenny knew it was a high possibility that, conscious or not, Munkustrap had chosen to go with Skimbleshanks, to deal with whatever Ball (and apparently amnesia) aftermath there was. Him forgetting her (and the others) was caused by magic. An unexpected event. But him choosing his other Mates over her wasn’t magic. And wasn’t unexpected. It’s how it had always been.</p><p>There wasn’t really any blame to be thrown around about it, as cathartic as it could have been. Jenny was kept too busy with her humans to leave her house and be as involved with the tribe (and Munkustrap) as she might have wanted. And Munkustrap was kept too busy with his tribe responsibilities to visit her as often as he might have wanted. Even Skimbleshanks, with his work on the train, was probably able to spend more time with Munkustrap than she was. And it was nobody’s fault. That’s just how life worked sometimes.</p><p>She must have been silently thinking for longer than she realized as her mind focused back to the present by Tugger calling her name with a trace of panic in his voice.</p><p>“Jenny, I’m sorry, I really am! I didn’t want to… I know I can be bad at paying attention but I don’t want… I don’t want to forget you.” he trailed off, shoulders slumping.</p><p>She sighed, too many emotions and thoughts swirling around to ever hope to properly convey. Now she felt a bit foolish. How do you say ‘sorry for thinking you abandoned me for real but I’m still upset that not everything wrong with my life can be blamed on magic’? To <i>Tugger</i>, of all cats.</p><p>“Ah, Tugger.” she muttered, scooting closer to press against him. Tugger seemed to hesitate some at her mood shift, but leaned into the contact, and slowly entwined his tail with Jenny’s. </p><p>“I get it.” she said. “Macavity. Magic amnesia. I guess I can’t really be mad. At you…” </p><p>She made a face and Tugger studied her in a serious way she was not used to seeing on him.</p><p>“You know I enjoy spending time with you, yeah? No matter how much you try to get rid of me.” he smirked slightly, but it was obvious he was still being serious.</p><p>“Psh. You enjoy everything. Until you change your mind.” she said in only a half-joking manner.</p><p>“Not with you.” he retorted. “I never get tired of breaking into your house.” The words were joking, but his voice had a weight of meaning in it that made her mind travel again.</p><p>It wasn’t a secret that she was one of the cats who had had multiple… <i>encounters</i> with The Rum Tum Tugger. She wasn’t one of his ardent admirers, following him around wanting attention. But somehow he had found his way into her house, and into her life. Now that she thought about it, it was a bit of an odd thing. Did Tugger ever go to anyone else? He was always the one being gone to. Except when it came to Jenny, apparently.</p><p>She was completely unsure what to say to this, opting instead to lay down, preparing to follow her usual schedule. “Well, as much as I can’t get rid of you, it <i>is</i> time for a nap. I’ve been kept from my beauty rest for too long. I’m prepared to take it up with Macavity if his shenanigans end up ruining my good looks.”</p><p>Tugger appeared to take it all in stride, and with an acquiescing gesture from Jenny, lay down next to her, apparently deciding to join her for this nap. He cuddled up to her and she decided that was fine, and everything seemed to be nice and calm and untroubled again, but from sneaked peeks, Jenny could see that Tugger’s eyes remained open and his ears kept twitching as if he was still thinking hard. She could almost physically see the looming interruption about to come and then…</p><p>“Hey Jenny?” </p><p>She sighed a bit, without really being truly annoyed, and cracked an eye open. “Yeah?”</p><p>“Are we Mates?”</p><p><i>’Wow, leave it to Tugger to do this sort of thing right now.’</i><br/>
“What? That’s… What are you doing? Are you asking me to be Mates?”</p><p>“...Maybe? But I’ve had a few conversation lately-”</p><p>
  <i>’With who?!’</i>
</p><p>“-and I don’t know, are we <i>already</i> Mates? Mates are a bit confusing to me to be honest, but if we’re not, I think I <i>would</i> like to be…”</p><p>Jenny’s mind was racing, <i>way too much</i> had just kept happening today. She would need a <i>long</i> nap after all of this! </p><p>“Tugger, would you just-” She shushed and swatted lightly at him as he showed no sign of stopping his rambling. “Could we have this conversation later? When things calm down again and our heads are clear?”</p><p>He blinked at her but nodded in acceptance, and the two settled down again. Jenny relaxed as Tugger seemed to actually be preparing for a nap this time. There was a lot to think about but her need for rest really was something she couldn’t push off any longer.</p><p>She told herself she wouldn’t even think of anything serious until at least 3 naps from now, but she couldn’t help but to very quietly joke, “I need my beauty rest if I’m Mate to <i>The Rum Tum Tugger</i>.”</p><p>A pleased squeeze from Tugger was the response as they drifted off to sleep away the aftereffects of the Jellicle Moon and an eventful Ball.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. (Demestrap)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Someone from Demeter's past comes back and she has a difficult request for Munkustrap.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Family tree notes: Demeter is the daughter of Growltiger and Griddlebone. Munkustrap and Cassandra are siblings, Grizabella is their mother.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Demeter stalked through the back alley, fur bristling. She jumped up onto the car and crawled through the covered hole in the back, settling onto the seat inside with an upset sigh. There was a stinging sensation in her eyes that she angrily tried to blink away but only accomplished a standstill with the sensation, unable to get rid of it. </p>
<p>Her mother had found her. She didn’t know how, but out of the blue, Griddlebone had shown up in the territory of the Soho Tribe, claiming to have escaped on the night of the attack that had been Demeter’s way out of her old life. Claiming to have left Growltiger. Wanting to reconnect with her daughter and patch their relationship.</p>
<p>But in Demeter’s eyes, there wasn’t much of a relationship <i>to</i> patch up. She wasn’t happy her mother was back in her life, and she wasn’t sure what to do. Thankfully, Griddlebone seemed content to stay on the outskirts of things, instead of making herself a big presence, but Demeter was still left feeling like the freedom she had found was about to be shattered. </p>
<p>Her ears flicked, hearing someone else jumping up to the car and she didn’t need to turn around or even sniff to know that it was Munkustrap who was now entering the junk vehicle, landing to settle next to Demeter.</p>
<p>“Hi.” he softly greeted her, brushing their shoulders together.</p>
<p>“Hi.” she responded bluntly.</p>
<p>They sat in silence for a few minutes and Demeter knew Munkustrap was waiting for her to speak her mind. Or to demand he leave her alone, if she wasn’t ready to do that just yet. </p>
<p>She sighed, wrapping her arms around her legs. “I’m trying to figure out what my mother is planning.”</p>
<p>He frowned. “Why do you think she’s planning something?”</p>
<p>She made a face that seemed unable to decide if it was a darkly amused smirk or an angry, upset frown. Of course he wouldn’t understand. Munkustrap was too trusting, she knew that from the first time she met him.</p>
<p>“Because that’s all she’s ever done. Both her and father. Always planning everything. Including my life.” she dropped her chin onto her knees. “Here.. with the Tribe.. I’ve felt so free. Freer than I had ever hoped to be. And now she’s come back to take everything away from me.”</p>
<p>“You can’t know that for sure.” he gently protested. She gave him a somewhat scathing look and he held up his paws in a placating gesture. “Look, I’m not saying you need to accept her back into your life…”</p>
<p>She gazed at him, discerning. Munkustrap wasn’t a stranger to… tense relationships with parents. But thinking of his aura when he spoke of his mother, or during the very few times the former Glamour Cat had shown up in the Tribe’s territory… It was an alien aura to Demeter. She wondered if it was the different circumstances. After all, his relationship with his mother hadn’t <i>always</i> been bad… But she couldn’t understand his feelings about the queen who had abandoned him, his siblings, and his Tribe. Especially when Cassandra had such a familiar rage simmering in her. But again, she could tell from the start that Munkustrap was a bit too soft and trusting. </p>
<p>“I just don’t want you to be overtaken with bad emotions.” He paused, thinking. “I do trust you Demeter. If you really think she’ll bring danger to the Tribe, tell me, and I’ll make her leave.”</p>
<p>Anxiety shot through her. “No!”</p>
<p>He flinched and flattened his ears at her sudden loud outburst. His gaze was questioning as she took a few breaths to try and calm herself.</p>
<p>“I just…” she looked down, sighing. “Do you remember how I became a Protector, and climbed the ranks, before we got together?” She groaned. “That’s a stupid question, <i>of course</i> you remember.”</p>
<p>He chuckled lightly. “I do remember. I didn’t realize those two things were connected?”</p>
<p>“They were, yes… All my life, my parents taught me to butter up other, more important cats. Use my looks and charm to gain trust and rank… I <i>hated</i> myself when I started… growing fond of you. I felt like I was just following their rules still. Doing exactly what they wanted me to do. I built up my rank by myself, as a Protector, because I didn’t want to live that role my parents planned for me. To be the plaything of higher ranking cats.”</p>
<p>He frowned, his features twitching as he seemed to want to protest the idea but she spoke again before he could.</p>
<p>“Munkustrap…” She resettled her position to fully face him. “I don’t… I don’t want to turn my mother away if she really is trying to live a new life.”</p>
<p>He smiled gently at her, reaching out to hold her paws in his. “I know it’s not easy, Demeter, but you don’t have to face anything alone, you know that.”</p>
<p>The stinging sensation in her eyes grew stronger. “I know I don’t, but… I’m still worried my mother will try something. Even if she’s not planning anything now, I don’t want to let my guard down too much with her.”</p>
<p>“I understand,” (she didn’t think he really did, but she appreciated the sentiment). “We can keep an eye on her, make sure she’s not up to anything.”</p>
<p>“Munkustrap…” she hesitated. “I need you to do something for me. To help with all of this.”</p>
<p>“Of course, Demeter, anything!”</p>
<p>She smiled tightly at his devotion. Usually it warmed her, but now it brought a painful pang. “Please don’t let my mother know we’re Mates.”</p>
<p>He blinked, brow knitting as he processed what she had said. “Wh… why?”</p>
<p>“Because of what I just said. My parents always wanted me to charm my way into the good graces of important cats. You’re the leader of the Tribe!”</p>
<p>He held tighter to her paws. “But that’s not what this is at all! You’re <i>not</i> just my pl- my play-”</p>
<p>“I <i>know</i> that, Munkustrap.” she couldn’t help but snap, before forcing herself to relax some. She sighed. “But if she <i>is</i> planning or even just… still has that tendency in her… if she knows how close we are… She’ll see it as an opportunity. Something she can use to control things. Control me, or control the Tribe…”</p>
<p>“You’re stronger than that. You wouldn’t just let her control you.” he said.</p>
<p>She smiled slightly. “I’m not asking for a huge cover-up. And I don’t plan to spend too much time with her. It’ll barely even come up. I just think things will be easier if she doesn’t know.”</p>
<p>He hummed and ran his thumbs over her paws. “Well.. like I said, I trust you. If you really think this will be helpful, I’ll go along with it.”</p>
<p>She leaned close to him, nuzzling their heads together. “Thank you, Munkustrap.”</p>
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